Digital Mileage

By Jon Quade on April 25, 2012

“With one of the most prolific arms in the entire NFL, Aaron Rodgers is always a threat in the pocket – you have to honor his ability. Which is, of course, what makes the draw play such an excellent call for the Packers.”

Ah, yes…the handoff. Though it is seldom used in today’s National Football League, it’s still exceptionally effective in the right situation. Like, say, right after you’ve consummated a vehicle sale.

Wait a second, Quade: how does a bread-and-butter NFL play relate to delivering a vehicle?

Stay calm, my friend. The vital handoff of which I speak is the one that transitions a customer (especially a new customer) from the sales department to the service department. Now, let’s be clear: this is not a pass off, where you turn the customer over to Fixed Operations, but just a temporary handoff to encourage customers to utilize all dealership departments.

Unfortunately, as in the NFL, the handoff is used sparingly at best in the dealership world, which is one reason why so many independent auto repair and maintenance shops have sprung up all over the U.S. So, let’s set the stage with a properly-executed sales-to-service handoff and identify who benefits and how:

Mary, Sales Consultant: “Susan, before we finish, I just want to show you one more thing – what to do when you bring your new car in for maintenance or service. First, pull right in front of one of these garage doors, drive over the hose, and the door will open. Pull up as far as you can into the Service Drive, and one of the advisors will assist you from there. In fact, Robert here is one of our top-rated service advisors – let’s go say hello. Robert, this is Susan and she’s picking up her new car today. I just wanted to introduce you to her so she knows who will be helping her when she comes in for maintenance.”

Robert, Service Advisor: “Hi, Susan – thank you for your business! Here is one of my business cards; feel free to contact me any time your new car needs anything. I’ll be happy to help and you can just ask for me when you come in.”

You get the idea. Now, who benefits from such an interaction?

• The sales consultant. Customers who have their vehicles serviced at the dealership are statistically much more likely to become repeat purchasers.
• The service advisor. When customers ask for you by name as they enter the dealership, you have the opportunity to build a long-term, trusting relationship.
• The customer. Customers prefer to have someone to ask for when they come in, and when we’re expecting them, they feel especially cared for.

Start including this vital handoff in your sales delivery process and you’ll see your customers much more often in the service department…and in your sales department!

A Mini Series, Part 3

Now that we’ve gotten the creative juices flowing, here are some best practices before you start “pinning” away.

1)      Do not self-promote or blatantly advertise your dealership. Keep the content light and fun. The goal is to showcase your dealership’s character so people can identify with you and/or your brand.

2)      Make your images search engine-friendly by incorporating hashtags. However, avoid “overhashing!” A rule of thumb is to only use the two or three best hashtags that describe the image (any more than that and it will look like spam-gasp!) For example, some good hashtags would be: #CustomChevy #MuscleCar. #LittleRedCorvette

3)      Again, I must reiterate the importance of high quality photos. Car shopping is a very visual experience, so make your Pinterest boards into virtual candy stores for your dealership. The better the quality of the images, the more your brand will stand out. In addition to high-quality photos, use vehicles with bright or unique colors, such as pink, yellow or red, as well as images with contrasting colors to help the image POP in the Pinterest dashboard.

4)      If the vehicle is on your lot, place the image on your website or blog and then ‘pin it’ so you are the source and can drive traffic from Pinterest through the established link. (Note: “Pinning” directly from Facebook is not available at this time.)

 Here is a great example of a Lexus dealership building their brand on Pinterest.  

This GM dealer is using Pinterest by labeling their “Boards” after their vehicle line-up such as Chevrolet Cruze, Malibu, Camaro, Volt as well as Cadillac and Buick models too. In addition to the vehicles, they are using other “Board” as creative pieces to give their dealership some local flavor and personality by including “Boards” called GM Classics, Ontario (where they are located), Travel and so forth. 

Once you have created your “Boards”, users can interact and “repin” these images, thus creating greater brand equity in a fun new visual way.

You might think that working in the digital space means staying inside all the time, chained to our keyboards and cranking out code.  Read on, and think again.

Last week, over 70 Cobaltians got out of the office, into the fresh air and got their hands dirty…sometimes literally. Over the course of four days and at five different locations, we collectively spent about 388 volunteer hours packing carrots, planting trees, pushing wheelbarrows, and more. But don’t take our word for it! Here’s a few thoughts from the folks who got out there and did it.

Tending the Giving Garden for Solid Ground

Solid Ground – April 10

For Solid Ground, our volunteers  helped with Lettuce Link’s Giving Garden at Marra Farm, learning about food security, organic farming and food justice through hands-on work.

Lidija Kamansky remembered something said by Solid Ground’s on-site staff. “Sue spoke about the importance of supporting local farmers and what the Marra Farm does for the community.  It really brought home what we were doing there yesterday and also things we could do in our day-to-day lives.  Then grabbing a pitchfork and getting started!  Also, just looking around and seeing everyone from Cobalt hard at work throughout the day.”

Amy Nelson also enjoyed all of it. “We got the sustainability lesson and I spent the day planting, so there wasn’t anything not to like. There were a variety of activities for different interests.” Lidija didn’t want to go home at the end of the day, “leaving one of the beds that we had been working on unfinished.  So much more to do!“

Packaging meals in the Chicken Soup Brigade kitchen

Lifelong AIDS Alliance – April 11

Lifelong’s volunteers helped with tasks such as packaging meals and grocery bags in the Chicken Soup Brigade kitchen and warehouse, and processing clothing donations in the Thrift Store.

Jessika Skipsnes said that “it felt great to be helpful – they are doing so much good there for people!”, while Nichole Murray loved “working in the kitchen and reading their board about how many meals they distribute a week. Over 3,000!”

Jessika also recalled a few of her favorite parts of the day. “We watched a video with the background on Lifelong, had someone that led everyone to the volunteer areas.  At each area (kitchen, warehouse, thrift shop) they had separate people in charge, leading the volunteers with each little project.  Most of the tasks in the kitchen and the warehouse were very repetitive easy things, so it was nice to get into an efficient groove.”

Packing food for those in need at Northwest Harvest

Northwest Harvest – April 12

Volunteers joined John Holt to help sort and repack food that to be distributed to neighbors in need throughout the state. By the end of the day, volunteers had moved over 8700 pounds of food!

Erik Allen found a lot to like in the day. “Got my workout, got to help others, and got to work next to John Holt!” Hieu Pham also pointed out that it was hard work: “Most of the day was enjoyable – only thing is I’m very sore today from all the frozen carrots!”

Working in Treehouse's Wearhouse

Treehouse – April 12

Treehouse had our volunteers working in the Wearhouse, a unique store where foster children shop for free for new and gently used clothing and other essentials.

Karen Sherwin has volunteered for Treehouse previously. “What a GREAT organization…the store was open and it was so fun meeting the clients and talking with them.”

Josh Dand (no stranger to giving where it counts) was also a returning volunteer, and also really enjoyed “being able to be on the floor while the store was open and seeing the families who benefit from the services we volunteered.”  His only regret was when the day was over. “Each time I’ve been there, the natural inclination is to want to do more, go longer and come back soon.”

Keeping things moving at Camp Long

Nature Conservancy – April 13

More than 25 Cobaltians met on this sunny day at Camp Long to remove invasive plants, resurface trails and plant new native plants.

It was a rewarding day for Stacey Overturf. “I really liked the history of Camp Long, information about the Nature Conservancy, and the tour of the park. Really, it was the completion of our project though that was my favorite part of the day!”

John Stark agreed – the accomplishments made all the hard work worth it. “To be able to look around and see the impact we made at Camp Long was a really good thing.”

That’s a lot of work, and most of the volunteers wanted to do more. As Erik Allen said, “Keep having these events, this is such an amazing part of this company.  I really love being able to help others and I love that I can be supported by the company that I work for in doing so.  Thank you Thank you Thank you.” Thank you for being a part of it!

To see more photos from last week’s community outreach, head on over to our Days of Giving Facebook photo album.

by The Cobalt Group:Jon Goad on Mar 8, 2011

How to Optimize your Dealer Website in Five Minutes a Day

John Goad is the SEO Quality and Process Manager for ADP Digital Marketing

We won’t mince words: If you’re a dealer still dragging your feet about keyword optimization, it’s time to jump in the game. In fact, a recent study from AutoTrader.com (you’ve heard of them, right?) just confirmed that shopping for automobiles online is less of a passing trend and more of a permanent reality. The study revealed that 71% of consumers use the Internet while shopping for new and used vehicles, more than double any other information source. It also reaffirms the importance of search engines, saying, “Search engines are…commonly used during the vehicle shopping process, with Google being by far the most prevalent. New and used vehicle buyers who visited a dealer site arrive at the site via search.”

Satisfied? Good. Now since we know that keyword optimization is not the average dealer’s idea of a good time on Saturday night (it’s not ours either, for the record), the experts at ADP Digital Marketing have provided you this list of clever keyword tactics that will help you trounce your competition in just five minutes a day. By the end of this article, you’ll know how to make your dealer website fully discoverable by customers dying to find that perfect vehicle-yours!

Killer Keyword Tips For Your Car Website

1. Think locally. The average dealer may dream of being number one for “Chevrolet” or “Chevy Malibu,” but you know better. You know that bidding on global terms is pointless because most consumers won’t drive more than 20 miles to pick up a new car. While it would be nice for your ego to be number one for “Chevrolet,” it would be unbelievably expensive and an ultimately fruitless effort. Instead, it’s better to pre-qualify the consumers that will actually convert by optimizing your site for local keywords like “Chevrolet Seattle” or “Chevy Malibu Seattle.” Not only do you have an infinitely better chance of ranking number one, you limit your traffic to consumers you could actually serve. Winner, you.
2. Go  beyond vehicle keywords. Sure, your business is selling cars, but that’s certainly not your only sales opportunity. Attract a greater array of customers by including keywords like “Detroit oil change,” or “Mazda shock absorbers Santa Barbara” or even “bad credit auto financing Houston.” Savvy keywords like these will allow you to attract new customers, even those who are not in-market for a vehicle.
3. Spice up your urls. Believe it or not, that little www address in your browser is one of the first places search engines look when ranking a site, so it pays to optimize them for key terms. The easiest recipe for optimizing your dealer website url is: brand name + subject matter. For example, if your page features your Service Sign-up sheet, a url like www.excellencemotors.com/ServiceApptForm would be perfect. Updating urls takes literally five minutes and can do wonders for your site’s rankings.
4. A picture is worth a thousand keywords. Well maybe not a thousand, but at least a few juicy ones! When optimizing your site, don’t forget about photos. When you upload a photo, you can include what is known as “alt-text.” Alt-text is basically an SEO caption; it tips off search engines to the photo content, therefore giving them yet another great opportunity to send relevant traffic your way. By taking a few minutes to add keyword-rich descriptions like “Seattle Chevy Dealer employees at a winter barbeque,” or “Seattle Green Infiniti J30 shining in the autumn sun,” you can give your dealer website a more competitive stance in just a few minutes.
5. Think links. A final quick keyword trick is to optimize your site links. Search engines treat links with added importance, so give yours some extra punch by incorporating key phrases. Instead of copy that reads “To view used Seattle BMWs, click here,” have it read “Check out our great selection of Seattle used BMWs.”  Why? Because, of course, no one is searching the phrase “Click Here.” They are searching phrases like “Seattle used BMWs.” This type of “link-thinking” takes a little while to get used to, but once you get in the mindset, it becomes second nature.

Needless to say, these tips work best when you combine them all together. Don’t settle for making your site a little easier to find by in-market consumers – make it a  dynamic car-selling destination by following all these tips for a powerfully optimized digital automotive website.

Last but not least, remember this isn’t about keywords; it’s about customers. ADP Digital Marketing SEO expert John Goad reinforces this maxim. “The best SEO tip isn’t an algorithm or some gaming technique. It’s about simply putting yourself in your customers’ shoes so that they can find what they’re looking for,” Goad says. “They’re doing a great job of pre-qualifying themselves; it’s up to you to make that connection by optimizing your site for those key terms. They’ve already told you what they’re shopping for. It’s not like a billboard on a freeway. People are actually telling you exactly what they want, down to the details. It’s your job to make sure they know you’re the one that can give it to them.”